


8 Down, 4 Across

by poppunkpadfoot (StormVandal)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, M/M, i wrote this in a rush please don't judge the quality too harshly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 05:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7209803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormVandal/pseuds/poppunkpadfoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remus and Sirius have a tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	8 Down, 4 Across

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago for the House Cup on HPFF - so almost a year ago - but never cross-posted it, so... here it finally is. Enjoy :)

Remus and Sirius had a tradition. It started when they were eleven years old. Each and every morning, over breakfast at the Gryffindor table, they would work on the Daily Prophet crossword.

Sirius had a subscription, and Remus did not – it was an extra expense his parents couldn't afford – but Remus liked to do the crossword. So one day in their first year, he plucked up the courage to ask Sirius if he might give Remus his paper when he'd finished with it. Sirius had regarded him for a moment before declaring that it was his paper and if Remus wanted to do the crossword then he had to let Sirius help; and from that day forward, evert morning, almost without fail, you could find Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, heads bent together over Sirius' Daily Prophet, plates of breakfast going cold in front of them as they worked on the puzzles.

It became an unspoken rule that they had to finish the crossword at breakfast for it to count – throughout the rest of the day they were far too busy with classes, homework, and Important Marauder Business to worry about finishing a crossword as well. They never managed this, but it didn't seem to bother them. As Sirius haughtily told James when they were twelve, the Prophet's crosswords were for grownups; they considered it enough of a feat to merely solve a good dozen clues.

When they were thirteen years old, Sirius gave Remus a crossword dictionary for Christmas. Remus, in quite an unusually exuberant display of affection, flung himself on Sirius so hard that they both toppled over; then they rushed downstairs to breakfast, dragging Peter and James with them, and worked on that day's crossword until the Great Hall emptied and James forcibly took the paper away from them so they could all go outside for a snowball fight. (As they bragged to him on their way outside, they had managed to complete more of the crossword that day than ever before.)

They had a different system over the summers. Sirius had the newspaper, Remus had the dictionary (or, at first, his brain), and they would owl back and forth every morning until their poor birds were exhausted. Even over the summer, they would only give themselves until noon to work on the puzzle, as they didn't want to get used to having too much extra time. Sometimes, if a clue was particularly difficult, Sirius would get overexcited and end up Flooing to the Lupin's so he and Remus could do the puzzle together properly. In their fourth year, the two of them figured out how to Charm pieces of parchment to send messages instantly, that summer, they used their new system and had a much easier time of it.

After their second year, Madame Pomfrey gave up on arguing with Sirius and trying to stop him visiting Remus first thing in the morning after full moons. Sirius would take his paper to the hospital wing, where Remus would be waiting for him, and the two of them would share Remus' breakfast and give the crossword their best shot, although Remus was often quite groggy and not able to solve the clues as quickly as usual.

In their fifth year, Sirius pulled The Prank. In a fit of rage, he told Snape how to get past the Whomping Willow. Remus had never been so angry (or in so much pain) upon waking up after a full; he knew one of the others had to have told. He ended up passing out before Madame Pomfrey arrived to take him back up to the castle.

When he woke up again, Sirius was sitting next to his bed with an anguished expression on his face and that day's Prophet in his lap, and Remus knew. Something inside him went cold; his face closed off and he turned his gaze towards the ceiling.

Sirius swallowed, looking down at the paper in his lap. "I... I already solved 8 across and 4 down. It was sort of an accident. I just glanced at the clues while I was waiting for you to wake up and I happened to know the answers."

Remus ignored him. He wasn't going to do the crossword with Sirius and pretend as though nothing had happened. In fact, he wasn't planning to do the crossword with Sirius ever again.

There was a few minutes of silence before Sirius spoke again, and this time he sounded close to tears.

"I'm so sorry, Remus. I can never apologize to you enough. I was such an idiot, and I'm so, so sorry, and if you can never trust me again I won't blame you, but – please. Please do the crossword with me. It... it can be like a fresh start."

They got through more than half of the puzzle before Sirius had to go to class.

Their sixth year was a good year. The Animagus transformations became routine, Remus' transformations became easier to bear, and the crosswords became easier to solve. Well, they didn't really – Remus and Sirius just got better at it.

One day, only a few months into the year, they finally managed to complete the crossword before breakfast ended, and Sirius got so excited that he kissed Remus full on the mouth, right there in the Great Hall. Before he could get embarrassed and pull away, Remus was kissing him back, and people were wolf-whistling and save Slytherins were laughing but James and Peter had never seen their friends look happier.

In their seventh year, the Daily Prophet's headlines got darker. The Marauders would read the paper every morning, faces and conversation somber; but afterwards, Remus and Sirius would do the crossword together. It was a tradition that nothing, not even the fear and the war, could put an end to.

**

One of Cornelius Fudge's less pleasant responsibilities as Minister for Magic was to visit Azkaban every year to check up on the state of the prison. He always dreaded the trips, but they were part of the job. He tried to get the tours over and done with as quickly as possible so he could retreat to the safety of his office.

One year, as he neared the end of his tour, one of the prisoners called out to him. This in and of itself was not unusual – what stopped him in his tracks was how lucid the prisoner sounded. He backtracked a little and found himself staring into the sunken eyes of Sirius Black.

He swallowed, but tried to keep calm. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if you were finished with your paper," Black replied casually, as though they weren't standing on opposite sides of the bars of an Azkaban cell.

Fudge, disconcerted, looked down at that morning's Daily Prophet, which was clutched in his right hand. "Er... I suppose I am, yes. What do you want with it?"

Black's mouth twisted into a strange sort of smile; if Fudge didn't know better, he'd say he looked sad.

"Well, Minister," Black replied, "I quite miss doing the crossword."


End file.
